Since the 1980s, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been available and utilized in various contexts. To operate, RFID systems do not require a direct line-of-sight between, for example, a product label (a RFID tag) and a product label reader (a RFID tag reader). Known RFID tags can be read in a relatively short amount of time (e.g., 2 milliseconds per tag), and can also receive and store information that is desired to be added to the RFID tag over time.
RFID technology has been utilized to track and monitor individual products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,211,781 describes the use of RFID technology to track and locate a moveable article, such as a piece of mail.
However, to date, using a RFID tag to monitor a group of items, elements, and/or products has not been utilized in certain contexts. For example, adding a single RFID tag to monitor a group of items, elements, and/or products is generally ineffective since the RFID tag may become lost, separated, and/or damaged. Furthermore, the group of products may need to be sub-divided at a later time, and the sub-groups can no longer be tracked using the added single RFID tag. In addition, there may be circumstances where it is not possible to accurately determine which individual products are included in a group of products.
We have discovered that providing a system and a method that can be used to monitor groups of products having RFID tags is needed.